Gitmo detainees say, ‘Please let us stay!’
By: J.P. Freire
Associate Commentary Editor
07/13/10 11:30 AM EDT
Six Algerians currently being held in the infamous Guantanamo Bay facility are asking not to be repatriated to their home country and wish to stay right where they are. From Powerline:
<<< The Obama administration would quickly send home six Algerians held at the military detention center at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, but for one problem: The men don’t want to go. Given the choice between repatriation and incarceration, the men choose Gitmo, according to their lawyers.
The administration secured a significant legal victory Thursday when a federal appeals court overturned a lower court’s ruling that had barred the government from repatriating one of them. The detainee had asserted that if he is returned, the Algerian government will torture him or he will be targeted by terrorist groups who will kill him if he refuses to join. >>>
This isn’t the first time this has happened either. Back in January, when the Obama administration was still serious about shutting down Guantanamo and transferring them to a supermax prison they were trying to build in Illinois, terrorist detainee lawyers weren’t hot on the idea:
<<< Falkoff notes that many of his clients, while they clearly want to go home, are at least being held under Geneva Convention conditions in Guantánamo. At Thomson, he notes, the plans call for them to be thrown into the equivalent of a “supermax” security prison under near-lockdown conditions.
“As far as our clients are concerned, it’s probably preferable for them to remain at Guantánamo,” he says. >>>
If Club Gitmo is preferable to repatriating the detainees and transferring them to a new facility in the U.S., why again is the president hell-bent closing Guantanamo?
Read more at the Washington Examiner: washingtonexaminer.com |
